SIOUX CITY | The NAIA Division II Women's National Basketball Tournament is known in Sioux City for many things:
- It is a welcome mat for several thousand visitors each March.
- It is the year-end destination point for teams that play in the NAIA Division II.
- It is a time and place where volunteers and basketball fans renew acquaintances annually.
Did you know, the tournament also played matchmaker? It did for Corey and Anne Westra. The two met at a tournament planning meeting on Groundhog Day some 17 years ago.
The former Anne Borchert was on her second day on the job with the Sioux City Convention Center, where she'd landed work as an administrative assistant. An East High and Colorado State University student, Borchert had moved back to Iowa after working for one year in New York City.
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Corey Westra, a Unity Christian High School and Dordt College graduate, was serving as the sports information director at Dordt and the sports director at KDCR in Sioux Center, Iowa, at the time.
Jerry Hansen, then the sports information director at Briar Cliff College, and Tim Seaman, of KCAU-TV, had asked Westra to serve as public address announcer for many of the NAIA tourney games at Municipal Auditorium in 1998 and 1999. Westra headed south to take part in the planning meeting that day.
"Roger Schultz introduced us before the meeting," Corey said.
"Corey sat a few chairs down to my right," Anne recalled.
He was 26 at the time; she was 25.
Though Anne was only in her second day on the job, her job searches in Minneapolis and Omaha pretty much stopped at that point.
"After the meeting, I walked over to JCPenney and she was there," Corey said. "So we did some small talk."
In the weekly planning meetings that followed, the two continued to talk. Anne then watched as Corey worked his enthusiasm behind the microphone, trying to do what he could to make the national tournament shine.
"During the tournament, I was kind of smitten with his announcing," she said.
Anne even tapped her mother's recipe file for a cupcake creation and brought them to the tournament. She gave Corey a cupcake and said, "Here's a homemade treat."
"We began talking a lot more and people were picking up on it," Corey said. "On Tuesday night, after the last game of the tournament, a big group of us went to Tom Foolery's. I walked her to her car and asked her out."
The two emailed dozens of times in the following two weeks, but didn't get together until early April. Corey drove to Sioux City and took Anne to Garfield's. Then, they did something romantic: They went to Menard's.
"I had to shop for a grill," Corey said with a laugh. "Actually, I almost burned down our house with that grill!"
After buying the grill, the two walked on the riverfront, braving the cool temperatures often associated with an early spring evening in Sioux City. They would see each other on weekends and became engaged on the Friday following Thanksgiving that fall.
The couple exchanged vows on May 19, 2001, at Morningside Reformed Church.
Corey resigned from his duties at Dordt in the summer of 2001 and has been in Sioux City ever since. He became commissioner of the Great Plains Athletic Conference in 2003 and now helps oversee much of the NAIA national tourney.
Anne worked at the Convention Center until 2007 and then joined the City of Sioux City in its Economic Development Office.
And, they keep plenty busy raising, transporting, coaching and cheering on three children. Son Aiden, 13, is a seventh-grader who has a passion for basketball, playing on team his dad coaches. Daughter Meredith, 11, is a sixth-grader who leans toward volleyball. Daughter Mallory, 7, a first-grader, is into gymnastics, but just a few weeks ago asked her dad if she could try basketball.
"The kids also do one instrument apiece," said Anne, who was always involved in choir and show choir at East. "Aiden plays trumpet and Meredith has two instruments, violin and trombone."
It's a juggling act this family knows well. If you want something done, the saying goes, give the task to a busy person. The tournament that brought Anne and Corey Westra together keeps the family hopping, especially during a "mad" week of March.
"Our kids know the NAIA tournament," Corey said. "We eat together at the Tyson during the tournament. The kids have grown up around it. And now they're to the age where I can put them on a project and they'll get it done."
